‘Coco’ is themed around the Día de Muertos, Mexico’s Day of the Dead celebrations, as its main character Miguel chases his dream of becoming a famous musician. — Screen capture via YouTube/Disney PixarLOS ANGELES, Dec 6 — Pixar’s latest animated picture leads the nominations for the 45th Annie Awards for accomplishments in animation. With 13 nominations, Coco is the favourite for this year’s awards, ahead of The Breadwinner with 10 nominations.

Currently leading the global box office with grosses of US$280 million (RM1.14 billion), Coco seems well placed to win Best Animated Feature at the 45th Annie Awards, held February 3.

The Pixar movie, set in Mexico between the Land of the Living and the Land of the Dead, could follow in the footsteps of last year’s winner Zootopia, which also won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film.

Coco is nominated alongside The Boss Baby, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, Cars 3 and Despicable Me 3. However, independent production The Breadwinner, could also steal the show at the upcoming Annies. This story of a young Afghan girl who dresses as a boy in order to work and support her family gets 10 nominations.

The movie is joined in the category for best independent animated feature by Loving Vincent and French movie The Big Bad Fox & other Tales, which gets three nominations.

The 45th Annie Awards are held February 3, 2018, a month before the Oscars, March 4.

Nominations in main categories for the 2018 Annie Awards 2018:

Best Animated Feature

The Boss Baby

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie

Cars 3

Coco

Despicable Me 3

Best Animated Feature — Independent

In This Corner of the World

The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales

Napping Princess

The Breadwinner

Loving Vincent

Outstanding Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature Production

Tom McGrath for The Boss Baby

Lee Unkrich for Coco

Benjamin Renner for The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales

Chris McKay for Lego Batman

Nora Twomey for The Breadwinner

Best General Audience Animated Television/Broadcast Production

Big Mouth

BoJack Horseman

Rick & Morty

Robot Chicken

Samurai Jack

For the full list of nominations, visit: Annieawards.org/. — AFP-Relaxnews